Despite the rapid growth of the use of technology in many industries, agriculture continues to utilize manual labor to perform the tedious and often costly processes for growing vegetables, fruits, and other crops. One primary driver of the continued use of manual labor in agriculture is the need for guidance and consultation by experienced agronomists with respect to developing plants. In particular, such guidance and consultation is crucial to the success of larger farms.
Agronomy is the science of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and land reclamation. Agronomy involves use of principles from a variety of arts including, for example, biology, chemistry, economics, ecology, earth science, and genetics. Modern agronomists are involved in issues such as improving quantity and quality of food production, managing the environmental impacts of agriculture, extracting energy from plants, and so on. Agronomists often specialize in areas such as crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, plant physiology, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and insect and pest control.
The plethora of duties assumed by agronomists require critical thinking to solve problems. For example, when planning to improve crop yields, an agronomist must study a farm's crop production in order to discern the best ways to plant, harvest, and cultivate the plants, regardless of climate. Additionally, agronomists must develop methods for controlling weeds and pests to keep crops disease free. To these ends, the agronomist must continually monitor progress to ensure optimal results.
Pursuant to the need to monitor progress, agronomists frequently visit the fields in which crops are grown to assess the plant production and to identify and solve any problems encountered. Solving the crop problems may include, for example, updating the instructions for chemicals and/or fertilizers used on the crops, altering a watering schedule, removing harmful wildlife from the fields, and so on.
Agronomists often use mathematical and analytical skills in conducting their work and experimentation. Complex data resulting from such use must be converted into a format that is ready for public consumption. As a result, agronomists communicate their findings via a wide range of media, including written documents, presentations, speeches, and so on. Such communication must further take diplomacy into consideration, particularly when the communication involves sensitive matters.
Reliance on manual observation of plants to identify and address problems is time-consuming, expensive, and subject to human error. Additionally, even when agronomists frequently observe the plants, problems may not be identified immediately. Such stalled identification leads to slower response times. As a result, the yield of such plants may be sub-optimal, thereby resulting in lost profits.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a solution that would overcome the deficiencies of the prior art.